Mariam's Story

The first thing I noticed was THE GATE..........

I was across the street.....and it called out to me, y'all, it really did!

Check out this amazing old doorknob on this historic ornate gate! Look at those key-holes! I'm putting the key in right now.......

Let's go in, shall we?

Next thing to notice is the old fountain with the statue right in front of the house. Once upon a time, clear water sparkled and tumbled into the pool at the bottom of the fountain here.I bet it was a pretty sight.

Here's the house, isn't she a BEAUTY!?

She's tall, and lemon yellow, and has jade green shutters, beautiful open breeze side piazzas, and lots of ornamental ironwork that fancies her up.
The house was built in 1849 by John C. Simons. He was a prosperous Charleston merchant who sold hardware, oils and paints. I think he had a shop on King Street. He lived here until 1946 when he sold it to Judge Joseph Fromberg. 

Judge Fromberg

(above)--that is a card Judge Fromberg signed. Look at his signature, the "F" in Fromberg--handwriting was so much more ornate back then!
The Judge was born in 1890 in Georgia ( I think it was in or around Augusta, Georgia) and he married a woman named Rosa. She was born in 1888. (two years after the great earthquake that hit Charleston)
(Below)-not Rosa, but showing wedding fashion of the day:

So pretty and feminine! Love that bouquet!

 Rosa's mother was named Esther and she was from Russia. Rosa had three sisters--Fanny, Rebecca, and Annie, and one brother- Barney.
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I think Mr. Fromberg's Father died in Russia and that his Mother's (or Grandmother's) name was Taibie and his father's name was Israel. Taibie Barthnovsky was born in a tiny town called Volkovisk, White Russia, sometime around 1870. She was a very pretty and popular young girl with many young beaus interested in her. She married Israel, a Hebrew teacher. They had four sons:
Pinhas, Moshe, Moradekhai, and Yettuda. 
Sometime around early 1900, Israel got sick and died. Young Taibie was left with four young sons and was expecting her fifth son!
A widow with five little sons didn't have too many opportunities. Taibie was corresponding with a former boyfriend who had immigrated to America. His name was Rutchik. They had been writing letters back and forth to each other. He worked as a fur trader. He offered her sponsorship to immigrate to America and she said "yes".
Taibie and her sons packed their belongings and got on the train and most likely went to to Hamburg, a seaport, to catch passage on a ship. She boarded a crowded ship with her four boys and tiny infant son, to cross the Atlantic and come to the New World. I cannot even imagine how she felt or how afraid she must've been. I've read those ocean crossings back then were awful and passengers fell sick often and didn't even survive the journey. Being out on a ship on the sea, with all those little boys, for several weeks must've been a challenge. Taibie was very brave.
They lived with other immigrants who were new to America, on the lower side of Manhattan and she found a job as a milliner. 
The boys soon got American names: Philip, Morris, Max, Julius, and the baby was Isidore. The older boys went to school and also worked part time jobs. Morris worked a job with Mr. Rutchik--the man who helped to get them to America. He worked in very dark and cold fur cellars, and got TB because he was breathing the bad un-filtered air in the cellars. 
Philip became a clothing store owner. Max was an American soldier in WW1. Julius became a shoe salesman. The baby, Isidore Bogoslov, was named after Mr. Fromberg's father....I think---Israel.
I became very interested in and intrigued in Taibie's story so I dug deeper. I'm not 100% sure of what I have found out and hope someday  maybe a family member might contact me and help me fill in the "missing pieces" I couldn't figure out. 
First of all, I wonder how you pronounce her name? Was it "Ti-bee" or "Ty-bee" or even "Tay-bee"?
It looks like Taibie's older sister  married a man named Zalinski- he was in a Jewish religious school in his native Volkovisk, a Russian city. He had trouble getting employment in New York after his arrival. A dealer in factory reject clothing in the South gave him a job--take the clothes South and try to sell them. He boarded a train to Walterboro, South Carolina, which was as far as his money would take him.  Walterboro is about sixty miles from Charleston. He set up a stall on a street corner and sold the clothes at lower prices than the shops there and he made money! He was able to rent himself a shop of his own, he put up a sign and Americanized his name to Zalin. He sent a letter to his wife in New York for her to come, as he had rented a home for them. She arrived, upset, thinking it was such a rural and isolated place--she couldn't find a synagogue or a kosher butcher and was ready to get back on the train and go back North! She did stay, of course, her husband was successfull in his clothing shops and branched out to shoes as well, and their children grew up there.
They invited Taibie to visit them in Walterboro, and they introduced her to a family friend--Bernhard Levy-- who was a widower. They liked each other even though he was older than her and non-religious-- and he eventually proposed marriage. Her youngest boy was about ten years old by now. She accepted his proposal around 1911 and opened her own ladies shop and worked as a milliner. They helped their son Philip open his own shop when he grew up. Morris was still working in New York in the fur business and he came to visit Taibie and his brothers in South Carolina. I think this is how he met Sarah Fromberg and I'm not sure how the story went on from there?
There is a connection that I could not figure out.
It looks like Bernhard (Tabie's new husband) was born in Kovna Province of Russia and he had come to America around 1880 and he came to Walterboro to sell the clothes around 1891.
While trying to find out more about Taibie I thought I had found her grave and it looks like I had so much trouble finding information because not only was her name was also spelled "Tybee" but her nickname might've been "Tillie" I think, which complicated things.
It looks like Mr. Levy, the man she married, became the Postmaster of Colleton County. He died in 1921.
I think Taibie might've died around 1947, but I am not sure as  I found two Taibies--one the Taibie Barthnovsky and one a Taibie Bogeslov.
I found a photo of the grave of a Tillie B. Levy who died in 1947--was this Bernhard's wife and the brave woman who crossed the sea with small boys in tow, (and either expecting a baby soon or had just given birth?!) on their way to the New World and a new life?
Was "Tillie" Judge Fromberg's Grandma? Or was this his Mother? The Judge was born in 1890 so this Tillie B. Levy would've been 20 years old at the time, right?

Tillie B Levy grave

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Mr. Fromberg was only about twenty years old when he applied for and was approved to practice law in Charleston. He had studied law at the State University in Columbia and was a very good student.
He was also a former president of the District Grand Lodge, B'nai B'rigth, and president of the Charleston Zionist District. He held many such important positions in Jewish work and associations, locally and some even National.
In April of 1935 Judge Fromberg was appointed special assistant to the United States Attorney General Homer S. Cummings. He gave up his City Court of Charleston Judge position to accept the new job.




Family members lived here in the pretty yellow house until the early 1960s. 

This old flower planter sits in front of the fountain. It sure looks antique to me. You can see a crack in the fountain pool behind the flower pot. I wonder if that was from the earthquake of 1886 or something else?

Close up of the flower planter:

(above)--this is a picture of a picture, so it's not the best--but it's the only historical picture I could find of this home. This was a picture of the house showing earthquake damage after the big earthquake shook Charleston the hot summer of 1886. You can almost make out the fountain in front, and you see damage and that the arches that were originally on the front of the house are now removed. It looks to me that they were replaced with the ornamental iron decor. The streets were yet to be paved and were probably dirt. I don't think they had the cobblestones in this neighborhood like over in Ansonborough.

I know those cobblestones really helped cut down on the dust and dirt on the hot days, and the outright MUD slush on rainy days. I can imagine it was extremely jolting to ride in a carriage over those as well---just driving a car down many of those streets over there are really rough, and these days we have tires and shocks! One of the streets in that neighborhood is called "Labor Lane" I think I've heard---because over-due expectant moms tired of waiting and waiting to go into labor have their families drive them up and down the jolting streets to bring on labor pains. LOL

I believe the Frombergs had one daughter, they named her Mariam. She was born in January of 1913. 
Census records show the Frombergs in Charleston in 1910 in Ward 11, which was somewhere on the north side of Tradd street to the west end of Broad Street.
Things were getting easier for homemakers in this time in Charleston. The vacuam cleaner had been invented. Electric lights were going in, making homes so much brighter and at all hours. Washing machines were invented and helped so much on laundry day, making the job easier and quicker.

Things Mariam might've worn as a young girl:

The 1920 Census has Mariam (age seven) and her Mother living in Savannah with her Grandma Esther (age 67) and Grandpa William Marus (age 57) . I couldn't figure out if the family lived with the Grandparents in Savannah until Mariam was older or what. A 1930 Census has the family in Charleston and shows Marium at age 17. I wonder which school she attended in Charleston?
Mariam grew up in the 1920s, the Jazz Age, also known as the "roaring twenties". Up until then, Mariam's mother would've lived in a world with the old Victorian rules and standards, and clothing that was very covered up, with high necks and long sleeves.
By the very early 1920s the looser drop waist dresses were becoming very popular and very long strands of pearls and beads were worn by many ladies in Charleston, imitating Coco Chanel.

Looks like they're having fun!

 I wonder what Mariam's life was like?  It was the world of Prohibition,(18th Amendment) Al Capone, dance marathons, speakeasies, and people dancing the new dances, like the "Black Bottom" and "the Charleston". Young men were driving fast roadsters in cities and small towns. Smuggling and bootlegging of liquor had begun.
Mariam probably saw "flappers" all about. They were young women who (yikes!) cut their hair short into scandalous bobs, wore the new 'short' skirts, fringe, put powder on their faces, and loved the jazz music.
 Let's see, around 1928 or so young Mariam would've been somewhere around her sixteenth birthday, so I'm pretty sure she would've been very interested in, and imitating the dances and the styles of this era. Flappers were doing what the older generation regarded as wild, reckless, and out of control. They were smoking, wearing rouge on their cheeks, plucking their eyebrows, wearing bright lipstick,  and kicking up their heels and dancing wild dances where you didn't even touch your partner and could 'freestyle'. Below, dresses, hats and shoes from summer 1928.

Dresses were boxy and didn't have waistlines

Right before the Roaring Twenties hit, proper ladies in Charleston still wore long dresses that were floor length and corsets. They valued a tiny waist and wore their hair long, the longer, the better. Things were quickly changing not only in Charleston, but in the nation. In 1920, women won the right to vote! Women were jumping on BICYCLES and riding them! Women were learning to DRIVE! Women were going to college! They were throwing their constricting corsets away! (many young women wore bound chests to make them appear flat) Women were rolling their stockings DOWN! Women had jobs! The soldiers were back from the first World War  and seeing many of the young women preferring to keep on working jobs in the workforce, and not wanting to get married and start having babies at a young age.
Silent film actress Clara Bow was someone the young girls admired and emulated, and she rose to stardom in the Silent Movie era, but was able to continue and move into the "talkies" when they came about.

Clara

.Mariam and her friends probably attended teas, Proms, school dances and hops, and went to each other's houses to push the rugs back and play records and dance for hours. Young people went to the movies, which now had sound and color! People had telephones now and young people could easily call each other to talk and to arrange dates and social outings. It was a whole new "modern era".

Judge Fromberg, Mariam's Dad, had his office on Broad Street where he had his private law practice. He was also a Justice of the Peace. Did Mariam ever stop by to visit with her Father after school in the afternoons? Most people went to the Synagogue on Friday evenings, then home to eat supper. They probably had many friends and acquaintances from there. I read that Judge Fromberg's Father had helped establish their Synagogue in Charleston. 

Mariam might've enjoyed looking at the popular movie magazines of the day such as these: (magazines were only ten cents to a quarter back then!)

Vogue and Harper's Bazaar also got started in the 1920s.

Hit songs included catchy little tunes like  "Ain't she Sweet?" and Al Jolson's "When the red red Robin comes bob bob bobbin along".
Did Mariam and her girlfriends go swimming? Wonder if they wore swimsuits like these?

Almost every one of these young girls had "bobbed" her hair

Lots of places to swim in Charleston! I would think Mariam and her friends did!

Young ladies like Mariam were interested in something called "make-up". Before now, only actresses and prostitutes wore Make-up, but now young girls were experimenting with rouge on their cheeks, very thick black eye-liner they often made with the burned ends of matchsticks, and dark red lipstick. They thought this made them look very glamorous, like their favorite movie actresses. Bobby pins were invented!
New companies called "Coty" and "Maybelline" opened and began selling cosmetics.
Mariam's mother probably worried about the times her young daughter was growing up in.
Some flappers DID HAVE loose morals. They spent money quickly and un-wisely, attended party after party, dated many different men, rode in fast cars, and smoked and drank gin. F. Scott Fitzgerald regularly wrote about such women in his novels and even said his wife Zelda, was the "first American flapper". Women like this were very scorned by the older generation.

The stock market crash of 1929 abruptly ended the carefree era of the flapper, and the Great Depression was on the way.
Mariam met and was courted by a man named Monroe Murray Pollard and they soon married.  Perhaps they sat on their porch in the evenings after supper and watched as people and children passed by. Maybe they rode the streetcar over to the Battery to watch the boats and the sunset. Or maybe they carried a picnic and walked around the Rutledge pond and talked about their future.
Judge Fromberg bought the yellow house in 1946. Mariam would've been in her early thirties by then. The best I can figure out is that she spent a good part of her childhood in Savannah and also Charleston.
The 1935 through 1940 census shows the family in Washington, D.C. They lived in an apartment on Sixteenth Street, N.W., at the old Chestleton Hotel. It was built around 1920 and had eight floors. Mariam's parents were in their fifties by now. This must've been when Judge Fromberg accepted the Assistant to the United States Attorney General position. The building is still there, I think it has been renovated into very nice condos.

old Washington Times article

Mariam and her mother bought and sold antiques after the Judge passed away, and they eventually moved to Savannah.

 Mariam passed away in 1968. She is buried in Savannah. She was only 55 years old. She never had any children that I could find.

The pretty painted house number in Charleston

We have an abundance of pretty iron work here in Charleston, and i love it painted this pretty shade of green!

Miriam's mother Rosa lived to be 89 years old. She died in 1978. Her Father Joseph died in 1961. He had always been described as "an old Southern Gentleman", very old fashioned and very mannerly. He had also campaigned for Franklin Roosevelt.

Judge Fromberg's gravesite

Miriam's husband Monroe lived to be 90. He died in 2007.

John C. Simons, the man who built the pretty yellow and green house in Charleston, died in 1870.  He is buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston. 

Now when I walk past this pretty yellow and green house, I am glad to know of the people who lived here, and some of their story.
I enjoyed learning about the Fromberg family and the Judge and his daughter, Mariam, who came of age in the Jazz Age.
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After I completed this story--I was able to see  these pictures of Tillie.

Is this the brave young lady that came on the ship to America?

at their store

Pictured with her sons
Photos courtesy College of Charleston Special Collections